Some points of intervention for the problem of a lack of interdisciplinary programs and research in education. Upper Left: Better funding for interdisciplinary research, done through joint funding. Upper Right: Universities having departments hire joint faculty with expertise between their two or more fields. Lower Right: Interdisciplinary research projects, which would yield results shared by multiple departments, bringing knowledge together to solve a common goal. Lower Left: Educating young students about subjects equally, by having a teaching plan that shows the importance of all subjects. Center: Interdisciplinarity and all the things it is composed of and requires.
An interdisciplinary education and perspective is paramount to understanding and solving the world's sustainability problems, but interdisciplinarity must first be made more feasible through the use of several key interventions.
The problem of the lack of interdisciplinary programs in higher education is a sustainability issue because the education most students receive today is insufficient to tackle the sustainability problems of today or the future. The need for interdisciplinary education and action across virtually all sustainability issues is great, and in order to provide the number of people necessary, as well as the quality of broad problem-solving ability, the education system we currently employ must change. This change should be focused on the inclusion of an interdisciplinary curricula and overall model within the college education system.
Problem:
The matrix issue of the lack of interdisciplinary research and educational programs was already explored in my matrix presentation, but a quick review of the issue is necessary. The western university system is focused on relatively narrow-minded education. This is especially obvious at the doctorate level. According to the National Research Council in 1996, over 40,000 Ph.D.s are granted annually by over 350 universities in hundreds of disciplines (Golde 1999). However, the issue is not with the number of degrees awarded, but with the type of training and education received. Science doctoral students in particular are most often trained narrowly in a field subspecialty. This problem is perpetuated by the department-based control of doctoral education and grant money allocation (Golde 1999).
One example that clearly shows the connectivity between education and sustainability is in the control of water-related infectious diseases, which can not only wreak havoc on human populations but alter and damage ecosystems as well. Likewise, improperly designed or executed “solutions” can harm the water supply as well, and the ecosystem that water depends on (Batterman et al. 2009). Dengue fever was wiped out in the Americas for decades only to reemerge recently in a more virulent form (Batterman et al. 2009). As noted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2004, 80% of death and illness in the developing world is water-related. There are many stressors that affect water hygiene and sanitation, from population growth and density to technological changes, like dams and roads. How these populations and governments react to these changes are dependent on many factors, like their cultural background, religion, history, and social status, yet these aspects have never been analyzed together with an integrative approach – an interdisciplinary approach. Current and past interventions have been crippled by a focus on the immediate, short-term factors, or proximal causes of infection transmission. The lack of attention to the more removed and difficult to understand causal factors is the source of unsustainable solutions (Batterman et al. 2009). This is but one example that demonstrates the great need for a change in the education system.
Barriers:
The greatest obstacle to the success of interdisciplinarity both in education and in industry is our perception of educational fields and problems. Many professions really consider themselves superior to others, and this does not come out of personal belief so much as from educators. People following a certain education path are taught more than just techniques and concepts, but also ways of thinking and acting, and these additional lessons are what really stick with students. There are stereotypes of majors and careers just as there are stereotypes for age groups and races. People who look down on scientists see them as narrow-minded researchers concerned only with the minutiae of equations and theory, with little care or vision of the large issues and connectivity of the problems. People who look down on the humanities and social sciences see people concerned only with the broadest concepts, content to rely on qualitative analysis and personal interpretation for meaning (Bauer 1990).
It is the perception of interdisciplinarity that is difficult to surmount, and from this difficulty springs the other difficulties of changing the education system and career demand. The system of separate departments and education paths is built into our education, obviously, but also into our jobs. The educational system is built around educational departments, which pride themselves on differentiating from other departments. There is a desire to attain accolades for their department, and so little incentive exists for faculty to work within other departments (Golde 1999). If multiple departments are involved, it is on a multidisciplinary basis. Multidisciplinary research is the loosest form of cooperation, where researchers from different fields look at a problem separately, do separate experiments, come to their own conclusions, and are possibly mentioned in each others’ papers. The only real cooperation going on is the sharing of data, and little else (Bauer 1990).
Likewise, in industry, development of new processes and products is still not interdisciplinary. Development and execution often rely on a process akin to a production line, where researchers develop a product or process, marketers and advertisers figure out how to sell it and engineers make the product or implement the process on a large scale. Assembly lines are great at producing a lot of something, but not on developing new solutions. The different groups do not work together or really communicate; they all perform their specific roles, and then tack them all together at the end.
Solutions:
Since the barriers to interdisciplinary education are so deeply ingrained into society, viable solutions to the problem must rely on showing the need for interdisciplinarity. The aim of these suggested solutions is to create lasting interdisciplinary study, not forcing it upon students and teachers.
Joint department hiring: One step that several universities have already taken has been joint hiring of faculty (Bauer 1990). Their expertise usually lies between the hiring departments and so form a useful link between fields. Joint hires can go on to head interdisciplinary research or advise doctoral students, thus introducing an extended knowledgebase and mindset to students who could become professors or industry leaders.
Joint department research projects: Another fairly simple intervention is in creating joint department projects, where researchers from the two or more fields can collaborate and communicate on an issue relevant to the departments involved (Golde 1999). The addition of joint projects would ease the tension and rivalry that sometimes exists between departments and facilitate cooperation. Another form this could take is collaborative senior projects for undergraduates. These projects could be designed so that the undergraduates involved must collaborate in order to complete the project successfully. The benefit of projects like these would be in teaching students to collaborate, communicate, and the importance of a different perspective in successfully solving a problem. This would hopefully lead to better communication between group members in a work setting, and would aid in creating a demand for interdisciplinary education from employers. When employers find that these new employees can better communicate and understand others from different fields, and, more importantly, are able to cooperate and develop new ideas, demand will grow for those taught in an interdisciplinary manner. This is a key result, as interdisciplinary education would not be popular for long if it is not sought after in the job market.
Broader funding / Multi-department funding: To allow for joint university research projects, the way in which research funding is granted would also have to change. Research funding today is based on the perceived success of proposed ideas today to grant funding. What research today will or will not be successful in the future is impossible to tell, and is highly subjective. To allow for a greater return on funding, broader funding requirements should be used. By allowing funding to departments, and even to two or more departments with one grant, joint department research projects would be made more feasible.
Teaching equality of academic pursuits to young students: To get to the core barrier of the perception of interdisciplinarity and the differences between different academic fields, the education system for younger students will have to change to better reflect the necessary cooperation and understanding between disciplines in college and in the workplace. The inclusion of all subjects equally from elementary to high school should be a major goal. Even more important than this is the necessity of showing students how important each subject is, showing how they depend on one another in a way appropriate to the age group. The subjects should be presented and taught in way that relates them to one another. This would lead to future college students, professors, and professionals who understand the importance of all forms of knowledge.
These changes in the education system should fairly quickly lead to a healthy demand for employees with interdisciplinary educations and outlooks. Changing the perceptions of the students and educators is the most likely way to get interdisciplinary education into a well-regarded position in academia and industry. Once there is demand for it, this necessary style of education will perpetuate itself, producing academics and professionals better equipped to understand and solve the sustainability issues of today and tomorrow.
Stakeholders:
With an issue as large as the education system, it is clear that the number of stakeholders is large. In fact it would not be exaggerating to say that virtually everyone is a stakeholder in this issue and in its resolution. At the educational level, there are all the educators, students, and other faculty. In industry, corporate executives rely on employees to keep the company going and to educated professionals to make new developments. The employees are stakeholders as well, as they rely partly on the relevance of their education to gain employment. Governments, both local and national are stakeholders, as they rely on the education system to produce intelligent, people to run for office who can effectively deal with current issues and foresee future problems. Looking farther out from proximal stakeholders shows how great an extent education has on everyone, as sustainability issues everywhere need individuals with an interdisciplinary understanding of the world and the issues at hand, and know how to work with others to find solutions that take into account all the complexities the problem includes.
The complexity of the inclusion of interdisciplinarity into the education system is large, as the problems and resistance stem from the differing perceptions of academic fields and their worth in our society. In order to break through these perceptions and prejudices in both the public eye and the academic one, the efforts of intervention will need to be well placed and persuasive. Along with others, the solutions presented above would greatly improve the success of interdisciplinary programs and projects in higher-education and in society. A better understanding and creative capacity for solving numerous present and future sustainability problems would soon follow.
Works Cited:
Batterman, Stuart, et al. “Sustainable Control of Water – Related Infectious Diseases: A Review and Proposal for Interdisciplinary Health-Based Systems Research.” Environmental Health Perspectives 117 (2009): 1023 – 1032.
Bauer, Henry H. “Barriers against Interdisciplinarity: Implications for Studies of Science, Technology, and Society (STS)” Science, Technology, & Human Values 15 (1990): 105 – 119.
Golde, Chris M., and Hanna Alix Gallagher. “The Challenges of Conducting Interdisciplinary Research in Traditional Doctoral Programs.” Ecosystems 2 (1999): 281 – 285.
Rhoten, Diana, and Andrew Parker. “Risks and Rewards of an Interdisciplinary Research Path.” Science 306 (2004): 2046. link: <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3839703>
Go Fix It!
Making Interdisciplinarity Feasible
An interdisciplinary education and perspective is paramount to understanding and solving the world's sustainability problems, but interdisciplinarity must first be made more feasible through the use of several key interventions.
The problem of the lack of interdisciplinary programs in higher education is a sustainability issue because the education most students receive today is insufficient to tackle the sustainability problems of today or the future. The need for interdisciplinary education and action across virtually all sustainability issues is great, and in order to provide the number of people necessary, as well as the quality of broad problem-solving ability, the education system we currently employ must change. This change should be focused on the inclusion of an interdisciplinary curricula and overall model within the college education system.
Problem:
The matrix issue of the lack of interdisciplinary research and educational programs was already explored in my matrix presentation, but a quick review of the issue is necessary. The western university system is focused on relatively narrow-minded education. This is especially obvious at the doctorate level. According to the National Research Council in 1996, over 40,000 Ph.D.s are granted annually by over 350 universities in hundreds of disciplines (Golde 1999). However, the issue is not with the number of degrees awarded, but with the type of training and education received. Science doctoral students in particular are most often trained narrowly in a field subspecialty. This problem is perpetuated by the department-based control of doctoral education and grant money allocation (Golde 1999).
One example that clearly shows the connectivity between education and sustainability is in the control of water-related infectious diseases, which can not only wreak havoc on human populations but alter and damage ecosystems as well. Likewise, improperly designed or executed “solutions” can harm the water supply as well, and the ecosystem that water depends on (Batterman et al. 2009). Dengue fever was wiped out in the Americas for decades only to reemerge recently in a more virulent form (Batterman et al. 2009). As noted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2004, 80% of death and illness in the developing world is water-related. There are many stressors that affect water hygiene and sanitation, from population growth and density to technological changes, like dams and roads. How these populations and governments react to these changes are dependent on many factors, like their cultural background, religion, history, and social status, yet these aspects have never been analyzed together with an integrative approach – an interdisciplinary approach. Current and past interventions have been crippled by a focus on the immediate, short-term factors, or proximal causes of infection transmission. The lack of attention to the more removed and difficult to understand causal factors is the source of unsustainable solutions (Batterman et al. 2009). This is but one example that demonstrates the great need for a change in the education system.
Barriers:
The greatest obstacle to the success of interdisciplinarity both in education and in industry is our perception of educational fields and problems. Many professions really consider themselves superior to others, and this does not come out of personal belief so much as from educators. People following a certain education path are taught more than just techniques and concepts, but also ways of thinking and acting, and these additional lessons are what really stick with students. There are stereotypes of majors and careers just as there are stereotypes for age groups and races. People who look down on scientists see them as narrow-minded researchers concerned only with the minutiae of equations and theory, with little care or vision of the large issues and connectivity of the problems. People who look down on the humanities and social sciences see people concerned only with the broadest concepts, content to rely on qualitative analysis and personal interpretation for meaning (Bauer 1990).
It is the perception of interdisciplinarity that is difficult to surmount, and from this difficulty springs the other difficulties of changing the education system and career demand. The system of separate departments and education paths is built into our education, obviously, but also into our jobs. The educational system is built around educational departments, which pride themselves on differentiating from other departments. There is a desire to attain accolades for their department, and so little incentive exists for faculty to work within other departments (Golde 1999). If multiple departments are involved, it is on a multidisciplinary basis. Multidisciplinary research is the loosest form of cooperation, where researchers from different fields look at a problem separately, do separate experiments, come to their own conclusions, and are possibly mentioned in each others’ papers. The only real cooperation going on is the sharing of data, and little else (Bauer 1990).
Likewise, in industry, development of new processes and products is still not interdisciplinary. Development and execution often rely on a process akin to a production line, where researchers develop a product or process, marketers and advertisers figure out how to sell it and engineers make the product or implement the process on a large scale. Assembly lines are great at producing a lot of something, but not on developing new solutions. The different groups do not work together or really communicate; they all perform their specific roles, and then tack them all together at the end.
Solutions:
Since the barriers to interdisciplinary education are so deeply ingrained into society, viable solutions to the problem must rely on showing the need for interdisciplinarity. The aim of these suggested solutions is to create lasting interdisciplinary study, not forcing it upon students and teachers.
These changes in the education system should fairly quickly lead to a healthy demand for employees with interdisciplinary educations and outlooks. Changing the perceptions of the students and educators is the most likely way to get interdisciplinary education into a well-regarded position in academia and industry. Once there is demand for it, this necessary style of education will perpetuate itself, producing academics and professionals better equipped to understand and solve the sustainability issues of today and tomorrow.
Stakeholders:
With an issue as large as the education system, it is clear that the number of stakeholders is large. In fact it would not be exaggerating to say that virtually everyone is a stakeholder in this issue and in its resolution. At the educational level, there are all the educators, students, and other faculty. In industry, corporate executives rely on employees to keep the company going and to educated professionals to make new developments. The employees are stakeholders as well, as they rely partly on the relevance of their education to gain employment. Governments, both local and national are stakeholders, as they rely on the education system to produce intelligent, people to run for office who can effectively deal with current issues and foresee future problems. Looking farther out from proximal stakeholders shows how great an extent education has on everyone, as sustainability issues everywhere need individuals with an interdisciplinary understanding of the world and the issues at hand, and know how to work with others to find solutions that take into account all the complexities the problem includes.
The complexity of the inclusion of interdisciplinarity into the education system is large, as the problems and resistance stem from the differing perceptions of academic fields and their worth in our society. In order to break through these perceptions and prejudices in both the public eye and the academic one, the efforts of intervention will need to be well placed and persuasive. Along with others, the solutions presented above would greatly improve the success of interdisciplinary programs and projects in higher-education and in society. A better understanding and creative capacity for solving numerous present and future sustainability problems would soon follow.
Works Cited:
Batterman, Stuart, et al. “Sustainable Control of Water – Related Infectious Diseases: A Review and Proposal for Interdisciplinary Health-Based Systems Research.” Environmental Health Perspectives 117 (2009): 1023 – 1032.
Bauer, Henry H. “Barriers against Interdisciplinarity: Implications for Studies of Science, Technology, and Society (STS)” Science, Technology, & Human Values 15 (1990): 105 – 119.
Golde, Chris M., and Hanna Alix Gallagher. “The Challenges of Conducting Interdisciplinary Research in Traditional Doctoral Programs.” Ecosystems 2 (1999): 281 – 285.
Images:
Money Key (Upper Left): http://www.biochem.uwo.ca/funding_opportunities/images/money%20key.jpg
Microscope (Upper Left): http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200807/r270765_1138069.jpg
Scientist (Upper Right): http://www.civfanatics.com/gallery/files/2/9/9/7/9/ScientistScetch081005_original.jpg
"Now Hiring!" Sign: http://www.speakerlauncher.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/hiring-241x300.jpg
Anthropology Logo (Upper Right): http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs23/f/2007/330/1/7/Anthropology_Logo_by_AngieTheStrange.jpg
Joint Research Project (Lower Right): http://www.ccmb.med.umich.edu/research/ccmb_12a.jpg/image_preview
Children in classroom (Lower Left): http://chinadan.com/01school/pp02-children-classroom-huaihua.jpg
"Interdisciplinary" word collage (Center): http://www.wku.edu/uc/bis/docs/pictures/Interdisciplinary%20Teaching%20Wordle.jpg
Interesting Links:
Rhoten, Diana, and Andrew Parker. “Risks and Rewards of an Interdisciplinary Research Path.” Science 306 (2004): 2046.
link: < http://www.jstor.org/stable/3839703>
Jacobs, Jerry A. “Interdisciplinary Hype.” The Chronicle 22 Nov. 2009 Retrieved 28 Nov 2010 < http://chronicle.com/article/Interdisciplinary-Hype/49191/ >
My matrix post on the need for interdisciplinary programs and research in higher education, here.